Not long come back, what an absolute fcuk about that was. We basically ended up doing winter repair tasks prior to deploying onto the area. This was,i believe, due to a lean line that was carried out by 6 Bn on winter repair completely failing miserably (no reflection on the 6Bn lads). Then, due to the kit being in such rag order, we carried out a spectacular 126 cas reps and something like 90 IST's once we had deployed. When are the wigs gonna realise that lean lines do NOT work. It's all well and good in a civvy company that is well backed with a good stores system but not in REME.
We carried out that many cas reps that Batus actually ran out of CV12's (5A & 6A), CV8's, TN15D,s and K60's. We were down to the last L60. It was my first MED MAN and I'm still in shock. God only knows how MED MAN 4 is going.

Not long come back, what an absolute fcuk about that was. We basically ended up doing winter repair tasks prior to deploying onto the area. This was,i believe, due to a lean line that was carried out by 6 Bn on winter repair completely failing miserably (no reflection on the 6Bn lads). Then, due to the kit being in such rag order, we carried out a spectacular 126 cas reps and something like 90 IST's once we had deployed. When are the wigs gonna realise that lean lines do NOT work. It's all well and good in a civvy company that is well backed with a good stores system but not in REME.
We carried out that many cas reps that Batus actually ran out of CV12's (5A & 6A), CV8's, TN15D,s and K60's. We were down to the last L60. It was my first MED MAN and I'm still in shock. God only knows how MED MAN 4 is going.

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Dont want to dampen your bonfire, but they run out of packs on nearly every med man/iron anvil.
I also dont know if we should be discussing figures on here but they dont seem too bad to me (from previous experience)

If the amount of work has shocked you then what will you think when it gets busy?

Fella - That sh1t has been state normal for years on the early season Med Man Exercises.
For some reason no matter how well the WRP seems to go the kit falls apart the first time it is used properly. Have been on both sides of the fence and still could not work out why. Those in the B/Gps say its down to sh1t WRP's and those involved in the WRP say otherwise.
One of the major problems is that when you get blokes in to work from many different units they take time to gel and get things right, as well as the fact that no matter how focused you are on the first few bits of kit you repair buy the time you get to the 5 or 6 vehicle of the same type you are going through the motions and not really paying that much attention to detail. Not being able to carry out proper out inspections due to the weather conditions does not help either. People hit the start all keen and wanting to make it happen, but buy the half way stage its burn out time and the quality drops.
People will no doubt say that this is a load of bo***cks. Sorry folks it's the cold hard truth. Been there done that!!
Everyone is so keen to shoot lean lines down in flames. OK so they don't work as well as some would have us believe, but lots of ideas have been tried in order to get the fleet in BATUS into a decent state without much sucess.

AT the end of the day, equipment is sent to BATUS to die. With old kit that is on its last legs you will never win the battle.

I must agree T_M, WRP is never perfect, nor can it ever be. No one fixes kit as well as the BG that is taking over This is proven on every roulement on Ops and Med Mans.

Ref lean processes etc. I believe they can work in the REME, but we always fall in to the trap of trying too hard with new ideas. Telic 7 was a 'lean fest' and the processes didn't work because people weren't given the required resources - i.e time and manpower. All that happened was we were promised the earth and received sand. The Snatch upgrade lean line was a shambles, not because of the people doing the work but because it was rushed in and under resourced.

Might as well tell the whole world what the British Army is short of. They now know which factories to blow up first when they attack.

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Not short of any of that kit mate, just couldn't fix the replacement packs in time.

RE. Early season MED MEN, MED MAN 3 WAS the first of the season as they couln't stage the first 2 coz the kit was in rag.
Agreed, this was my first taste but from the blokes around me, this was the worst MED MAN to date.

Might as well tell the whole world what the British Army is short of. They now know which factories to blow up first when they attack.

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Not short of any of that kit mate, just couldn't fix the replacement packs in time.

RE. Early season MED MEN, MED MAN 3 WAS the first of the season as they couln't stage the first 2 coz the kit was in rag.
Agreed, this was my first taste but from the blokes around me, this was the worst MED MAN to date.

Lean is a great idea. It works in enviroments where people are dedicated to that job alone. That is where it will fail in the REME. We have too many other commitments and we are too overstretched everywhere to possibly make it work - except for BATUS.

If Lean continues to fail here where the enviroment is dedicated to it and Battalions spend months preparing for it using every available tradesperson and resource possible with no other distractions then surely it is time we realised that perhaps we should take the parts of Lean that do work and integrate them into REME's tried and tested methods and forget pursuing this lost cause....and breath.

Too many peoples careers however are hanging on the fact that Lean must work so don't expect it to go away for a while my friends.

Lean is a great idea. It works in enviroments where people are dedicated to that job alone. That is where it will fail in the REME. We have too many other commitments and we are too overstretched everywhere to possibly make it work - except for BATUS.

If Lean continues to fail here where the enviroment is dedicated to it and Battalions spend months preparing for it using every available tradesperson and resource possible with no other distractions then surely it is time we realised that perhaps we should take the parts of Lean that do work and integrate them into REME's tried and tested methods and forget pursuing this lost cause....and breath.

Too many peoples careers however are hanging on the fact that Lean must work so don't expect it to go away for a while my friends.

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dim, must disagree. Lean is a tool to use, not a Corps initiative. You don't have to use it but there's people out there willing to help you adapt it to your needs.... it's not a career buster (yet)

Unclebink,
Lean is the latest fad for REME, every Comd ES is trying to push it. On Telic 7 every opportunity was taken to further the use of lean techiques, even when it wasn't feasible or applicable to the job in hand.
As with every new fad, getting the job done becomes secondary to the use of the 'fad process'.

This was,i believe, due to a lean line that was carried out by 6 Bn on winter repair completely failing miserably (no reflection on the 6Bn lads).

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All the out inspections of the equipment were completed by BATUS Class 1 tradesmen, so the quality of the repairs could not be doubted. The failure rates you indicated are reasonable for an average Medman. Do a few more and you'll soon realise this!

The REME guys can't be doing too bad a job. I did an Iron Anvil i.e. 60 odd days pottering around the ulu doing battle runs etc and the worst thing that went wrong with my 432 was the rubber coming off from one of my road wheels. Not too bad really.